Love and War
by ATrueGryffindor
Summary: '"HARRY POTTER! I SHALL NOT FAIL YOU, MASTER!" McKenzie screamed toward the heavens.' Half-bloods, while many are insane, are really just regular teens. Or, at least, until war comes along, and they're forced to grow up and move on much before their time.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

McKenzie studied herself carefully in the mirror. She hardly glanced at her face, knowing exactly what she would find, but rather focused on her outfit-dark denim jeans and a green t-shirt.

Deeming herself "good enough," she grabbed her bag and hurried down the stairs.

McKenzie ran into the kitchen and shoved an apple into her mouth, then dropped it, quickly eating the bite. She was moving towards the door when a voice stopped her.

"Slow down, Supergirl. Can't a father see more of his little girl than a blur as she races out the door?"

McKenzie smiled as she turned around to face her dad.

"Sorry, Dad. I'm gonna be late for school. See you after?"

"You have to pack for camp then," her dad reminded her, shifting his weight onto his prosthetic leg.

McKenzie sighed. "That's the worst part about camp," she confided. "You spend all year thinking about what you're going to bring, then the night before you leave you finally get it all to fit, and then you get there, and you don't even get to wear any of it. It stinks. Like, epically."

Her dad grinned. "Don't worry, 'Kenzie." He said, ruffling her hair affectionately. "Someday a guy will fall for you and think you're beautiful no matter _what_ you wear."

"Dad!"

"I know it's awkward, honey, but I also know you've got to grow up some day, and-"

"No, not that!" McKenzie said, rolling her eyes.

"What?"

"You messed up my hair!"

And with that, McKenzie turned around and walked out the door.

McKenzie sprinted to school, too worried about being late to even enjoy the refreshing run as she once would've. She was no daughter of Athena, but she had been late far too many times this year, killing harpies, hellhounds, empousa, and even the occasional Cyclopes in those early morning hours. Of course, she just _couldn't _go to school without a shower, her hair neatly done for those ever windy days, those leftover Algebra II problems completed that she hadn't bothered to finish the night before…

Anyways, she didn't want the teachers to hate her any more than they already did.

McKenzie arrived at the school about five minutes after leaving her house, a new record for her. She slowed her pace to a jog as she neared her locker.

She threw her books into it and walked quickly to her first period class, History. She just got into her seat as the bell started to ring.

After nodding apologetically at the teacher's stern glance, she proceeded to completely zone out.

She thought about Camp Half-Blood, which was just about her favorite place in the whole wide world. She would be attending it again tomorrow, after her flight from Ohio to New thought about her friends, and smirked as a memory crept into her brain.

_McKenzie was out jogging with her siblings (except for her good friend Rosa, who was sick) along with some of the other cabins who had track at the same time as them. A lot of her out-of-shape siblings groaned and moaned, but she loved the feeling of fighting the wind, struggling to keep her behind as it blew her hair back. It made her feel… powerful. It was something she didn't experience too often._

_She was leading the group in laps as she jogged steadily, her lungs slightly breathless, but still breathing, unlike many of the others._

_She was in her element.  
><em> 

_That was about when she got soaked. _

_Cayden, one of her "best friends" so he called himself (truly, it was a pity thing) had pushed her under Percy's personal water bottle falling from the sky as she ran past them. Glaring, she pushed the sopping wet hair out of her eyes as she spun around the face them._

_Percy was trying to hide a grin while Cayden's eyes sparkled with mischief. She narrowed her eyes and said, "What was that for?"  
>Percy started to reply, but Cayden cut him off. "You were just looking so hot and sweaty m'dear. We thought we'd save everyone the stink and give you a nice, cold shower."<em>

_McKenzie swatted at him, but he leaped out of the way with practiced ease and ran away laughing._

_McKenzie looked to her friend, Regina, for backup, but Regina was too busy laughing to notice._

"_Come back here!" She called after him angrily, but it was no use. She saw many eyes rolled, especially from this weird Goth daughter of Hecate, Mina, or something, but she didn't care. She was too busy trying to solve the problem at hand - catching up. His legs were long, while hers were short. While normally she'd be just a bit faster, she was getting tired while he seemed to have been walking the whole time._

_Suddenly, McKenzie smirked, as an evil genius idea popped into her head. Vines grew around Cayden and stuck him in place. She swaggered excruciatingly slow to where he was, and grinned evilly when she arrived._

"_So, Cayden…"_

The bell jerked her out of her thoughts, and she pushed her way through the crowds to get to her next class, typing. She groaned as she thought about it. It was _so_ boring. In what world did you spend the entire class period pressing buttons? The mortals', apparently. 'A, A, A, A, A, S, S, S, S, S, D, D, D…' That teacher was getting paid _way_ too much for such a useless job.

The school day passed lazily enough, and then it was time to go. Breathing out in relief, McKenzie shoved past the other students, rolling her eyes at all their supposed "problems."

"_I mean, really, he __**knows **__I like lilies better!"_

"_I can't believe she turned me down!"_

"_That F? I mean, really! I worked really hard on that!"_

"_The coach is so stupid. I totally deserved to make the team. If I had been on it, we wouldn't have lost."_

That was the one thing McKenzie held against mortals; their inability to see anything but themselves. While they complained about how he didn't ask her to dance, or how she didn't respond to his ceaseless, obvious flirting, she complained about how the world was ending, she was going to die, and monsters were going to take over the universe and reign for a thousand bloody years.

So she continued to move through the halls, not stopping to talk to anybody. After all, who would want to talk to _her_?

She stopped at her locker, threw her backpack on the floor, and knelt down to enter the combination. She looked in dismay at the cheeseburgers, cereal, and crumpled up papers all mixed together. She hesitated for a moment, before reaching in, grabbing it all, and stuffing it into her back, meanwhile chanting, "Ew, ew, ew, ew."

That was almost all it took for her to drop her disgusting, sloppy habits and become and organizational freak. Almost.

McKenzie shuddered, grabbed the backpack, and left the school building. Absolute relief flooded her as the sun hit her face as she walked home.

About halfway home, she heard a child's yells. Frowning, she picked up her pace. As she grew closer, the screams became louder and more frantic; she began to run.

She halted in front of the scene. There was a boy, maybe twelve years old, shouting, as two empousa advanced on him. Obviously, he could see what they were.

McKenzie leapt in front of him and glared at the monsters.

"Don't you dare touch him!" she cried dramatically, unable to resist adding that slightly taunting, sarcastic note to her voice, hoping beyond hope that this would be the monster to finally respect her as an enemy.

One of the empousa laughed, looking her up and down. McKenzie was, to say the least, very small. Between being skinny, bony, and just over five feet at the ripe old age of fourteen, she had a hard time stopping the monsters-and even people, too, from laughing at her. Usually, though, they stopped by the time they were mangled and bleeding on the floor.

Glaring, McKenzie reached for her belt. Her backpack and binders tumbled to the ground as she felt for her knife.

After a moment of feeling blindly for a weapon (probably not the smartest thing she's ever done, but definitely not the dumbest), McKenzie realized something. "Oh, crap," she muttered, picking up her backpack and looking through it for something potentially lethal as the empousa surrounded the boy.

Panic started to increase as she continued to search, and she couldn't find anything to protect herself and the boy with. Her mouth slid into a deeper frown.

She was so intent on finding pointy things that she didn't notice a Pegasus land. A boy slid off the back of the animal and rolled his eyes at the scene that awaited him.

He tossed a small, sheathed sword to the kid, and before you could say, "Shishkobob-in' Monster Fishin'," the air was clouded with monster dust.

"AHAH!" She screamed victoriously, a long knife raised above her head. She drew it back, and was about to throw it when the monster dust cleared, and she realized she had almost stabbed the boy (Boy-Snack, not Boy-Always-Stealing-McKenzie's glory).

Grinning awkwardly, she stuck out her hand for him to shake. "Hi…I'm McKenzie Hood, daughter of Demeter."

**A/N: Thanks sooo much to everyone who read this! I hope you liked it! Also, special thanks to lioness94, my beta-reader, for making this story a lot better than before and being really quick about it! Everyone say, "Thank you, lioness94!"**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: First off, I want to say thanks to everyone who reviewed, favorited, put my story on alert, ect. I was a little disappointed that only one person reviewed, but hopefully I'll get a couple more with this chapter!**

**Also, last time, none of my lines showed up in the chapter. Sorry, guys. Now it'll just say "Line Break" when there's supposed to be a line break.**

**Thirdly, I also realized that I never thanked everybody who gave me and OC. Also, to the person who gave me Rosa Hernandez (originally Brenda Hernandez), I'm sorry. She's not really at all like the girl you submitted. Almost nothing about her is what you wanted. I'm so sorry, but this was the only way to fit her in the story. She was a really good OC, I just couldn't fit her in.**

**Lastly, chapters will be up hopefully every Wednesday and will probably be about five pages long on Microsoft Word, unless I get really into the story and start writing longer chapters.**

Recap: _"AHAH!" She screamed victoriously, a long knife raised above her head. She drew it back, and was about to throw it when the monster dust cleared, and she realized she had almost stabbed the boy (Boy-Snack, not Boy-Always-Stealing-McKenzie's glory). _

_Grinning awkwardly, she stuck out her hand for him to shake. "Hi…I'm McKenzie Hood, daughter of Demeter."_

"Wow, 'Kenzie. Just… wow."

"Shut it, White," she said through giggles, rather hypocritically.

The boy continued to stand awkwardly to the side.

"Oi!" 'White' said suddenly, gazing at him. He jabbed McKenzie in the side with his finger. "We forgot our little friend here."

McKenzie controlled her laughter and stood up. Her shoulders shook with silent laughter for a moment before she was able to control herself and said, "Well, as I said before, I'm McKenzie Hood, daughter of Demeter. This is my so-called 'friend', Cayden White, son of Hermes. What's your name?"

"Thomas," he whispered nervously, looking like a deer in headlights. Then, hastily, he added, "You're joking, right? About being… being a daughter of Demeter?" He spun around to look at Cayden. "And you, a son of Hermes?"

Cayden shook his head slowly. "Sorry, kid. We wish we were, sometimes, but you've got to face reality. You're a child of the gods, too; or at least a clear-sighted mortal."

Thomas looked confused.

"Do you have ADHD, Thomas?" McKenzie asked, noting his expression.

"Yeah…"

"Dyslexia?"

"Maybe…"

"Yes, or no, kid?" Cayden demanded.

Thomas sighed deeply, before replying, "Yes."

"One parent, or less?"

"I live in an orphanage. My parents are dead," Thomas replied, annoyance slowly creeping into his voice at being asked questions yet getting no answers himself.

McKenzie finished her interrogation with a proud smile. She reached up to ruffle Thomas' hair, getting an irritated glance in response, and said "You're one of us."

Impatiently, Thomas said, "Well, as great as being one of you seems to be, getting attacked by monsters all the time, what _now_?"

Cayden grinned. "Well, _now_ you get to enter the wonderful world of camp. Rock climbing, temperamental Hunters of Artemis that can aim so accurately they could give you a haircut with a bow and arrows, near death experiences, fighting with cabin mates with pointy objects, monsters, annoying but exceptionally hot Aphrodite girls-" here McKenzie hit him upside the head-"eternal glory, etcetera, etcetera. Sound good?"

Dazed, Thomas nodded, a goofy smile on his face as he daydreamed. McKenzie expected him to immediately volunteer for a quest, jump up and down screaming 'Rock climbing!", look eagerly at her knife, beg to leave ASAP, make some sexist comment about the Hunters of Artemis, or start bombarding the two campers with questions of different types of monsters. Instead, he said, still in a trance, "Exactly how hot are the girls?"

(LINE BREAK)

McKenzie waved the boys goodbye as they flew off to camp on the Pegasus, promising to be there tomorrow, and she trudged back to her house.

"McKenzie! Where were you? I was worried about you!" Her father grabbed her in a great bear hug the second she walked in.

McKenzie looked at the clock and realized it was nine o'clock.

She smiled weakly at him. "Yeah, I had a bit of a run-in with some empousa. No big deal."

Her father frowned. "I thought they only went after boys." 

"They do. I saw a boy being attacked. I couldn't exactly just leave him there, although I'm starting to wish I had. When you first meet him, he's all shy and quiet, but the second you mention hot Aphrodite girls, he's ready to talk forever.

McKenzie's dad just smiled. "Well, don't let me keep you up. You've got a long day ahead of you tomorrow, you have to wake up early for the flight, and you still have to pack!"

She groaned, before trudging up the stairs.

(LINE BREAK)

The first thing McKenzie did when she got to her room was grab a pair of scissors out of her desk drawer. She couldn't afford to forget.

She held the scissors up to her hair, took a deep breath, and _snip_, a lock of hair fell to the floor.

At camp, girls were judged on how good-looking they were, and how much effort it took them to achieve that level of beauty. You didn't see a lot of girls with makeup or fashionable clothes or hairstyles, but it wasn't because they didn't want them.

Normally, she had decently pretty black hair that was shoulder length, and layered. That was how she got it cut before she went back to school. The night before she went back to camp, though, she would cut it raggedly chin-length. She was eternally grateful for her ponytail, which would allow her to change the cut without the boys noticing.

She quickly finished, looked in the mirror, sighed deeply, and started to pack.

(LINE BREAK)

McKenzie grabbed her bags and went flying down the steps that led from the plane to the ground. She was eternally grateful to be off the plane, and set to work popping her ears.

She caught a cab and sped away to camp. She was eager to get back into camp routine, yet nervous, too. Would Drew make fun of her? Would the guys treat her as an inferior fighting force because of her height _again_? Would she let something slip that would blow her rep as a tomboy who didn't care what she looked like?

_Deep breaths, McKenzie_, she told herself. _Whatever comes your way will come your way, and there's nothing _you_ can do about it._

The car pulled to a stop in front of Half-Blood Hill. "Here it is, miss," the cabbie told her, as if she didn't know, and all that refrained her from rolling her eyes were the nerves twisting themselves into knots in her stomach.

McKenzie opened the door of the cab slowly, and set her bags down beside the car. She climbed at just as slowly and cautiously, as if she expected a bomb to be set off, or something of the sort.

After a quick smile from the driver, the cab was gone, and she stood at the base of the hill, completely alone.

"Man up, McKenzie." She wasn't all that surprised to find herself talking out loud. "What would everybody say if they saw you just standing there?"

And with that, she started to trudge up the hill, towards home, the place where she belonged.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Okay, guys. Here it is. Chapter three. You few people who are actually bothering to read this story had better be grateful, because I am really, really, really sick today and yet I STILL managed to get this up on time. Yeah. That takes dedication.**

**Enjoy the chapter! And when you're done with that, REVIEW!**

_Recap: "Man up, McKenzie." She wasn't all that surprised to find herself talking out loud. "What would everybody say if they saw you just standing there?"_

_And with that, she started to trudge up the hill, towards home, the place where she belonged._

"MCKENZIE!" someone screamed, and the girl in question winced, covering her ears as her best friend in the whole wide world, Regina Silverron, came racing towards her.

"I MISSED YOU SO MUCH!" she yelled right into McKenzie's ear.

McKenzie wrenched herself from the girl's grasp and backed away slowly, looking warily at Regina, who was jumping up and down.

"Regina, you're going to have to pay for my hearing aids when the inevitable happens and you get so high everyone within a five mile radius loses their hearing FOR ALL ETERNITY!"

Regina looked confused. "But if you were deaf, you wouldn't need hearing aids. I mean, hello! Hearing _aids_. They are pretty useful, but they can't make someone deaf hear again! I mean, really, McKenzie!"

She sighed deeply, turned around, and opted not to say anything. It was always the safest decision when it came to her best friend.

"McKenzie? McKenzie! Where're you going? WAIT FOR ME!"

(LINE BREAK)

McKenzie had finally lost Regina, telling her that as much as she loved her, she should go talk to all her other friends, too. Regina had reluctantly agreed after eight minutes of begging and pleading to go with her.

She was walking around camp, reveling in the loss of excited screaming in her ear, wondering why she had ever been so nervous, when with a yell; someone swiped at her with a sword. McKenzie dodged easily - the movement had been sloppy.

She unsheathed her knife and spun around to face her attacker, but lowered it with a grin. 'Thomas!" she exclaimed.

Thomas looked less like a scared, shocked little boy and more like a fun-loving, care-free, and overly confident kid every twelve year old should be. McKenzie was pleasantly surprised at how quickly he had adjusted to camp.

"MCKENZIE!" He yelled, and tackled her into a hug. McKenzie groaned. _Not again_, she thought.

She gently tore out of his grasp and said, "How are you liking camp, Tom?"

His eyes lit up. "It's great! Rock climbing is really, really fun! And there were some Aphrodite girls that were _drooling_ over me during sword practice!"

"Is that all you think about? Hot Aphrodite girls?"

Thomas nodded solemnly.

McKenzie sighed, and said, "Come on, let's go find Cayden. Maybe he can talk some sense into you."

"Nah, I like the way he's thinking already, Pipsqueak."

McKenzie turned around, glowering. Her face turned a dark shade of magenta and steam poured out of her ears while her eyes flashed like the lights on a fire truck.

"I thought I told you not to call me that, White!"

Cayden smirked. "Eh, you probably did. My bad. Sorry, Pipsqueak. Won't happen again."

McKenzie lunged at him with her knife, and, faster than lightning, he unsheathed his sword and blocked her attack.

Cayden's smirk got bigger, and McKenzie wanted nothing more than to cut his mouth out of his face.

She continued to attack, but he blocked every time. She growled deep in the back of her throat. She knew she couldn't beat him. Her anger was making her sloppy, and he was already one of the best swordsmen in camp, after Percy and this unclaimed girl from the Hermes cabin, Mina McKinly.

Suddenly, the deep hue of color in her cheeks faded, and her eyes grew calm and confident. She smirked, and Cayden gulped.

She snapped her fingers, and vines wrapped themselves around him. He struggled to break free, but the vines were too thick and strong. They grabbed the sword from him and chucked it across camp.

McKenzie smiled at him as she walked past.

"Hi, Cayden! How was this past day at camp? Good, I hope? Great! Bye!"

And she walked away from him, as he yelled curses at her retreating back.

(LINE BREAK)

After that _interesting _episode with Cayden, she decided to try to find her sister and good friend, Rosa Hernandez. She decided to look in the strawberry fields for her sister, first. Usually Rosa wanted to spend every second of her free time in the woods, even though she was a Demeter kid, but McKenzie wanted to check the fields first, because strawberries were in season and every kid that had a parent that was good at growing stuff was stuck out there for at least a couple hours every day.

After a while of searching for Rosa, McKenzie sighed and gave up. She would never be able to understand Rosa's strange, strange ways.

Having nothing better to do, McKenzie plopped down onto the hard ground and set to work, watering the strawberries and digging up weeds. Occasionally, she would use her powers if a plant needed a little extra attention.

McKenzie loved camp, but sometimes she got overwhelmed with the all the hard-core training and all the people running around. You didn't get a lot of time to just think about what was going on in your life. The Demeter and Dionysus kids were some of the luckiest kids in camp, because they got the chance to do so everyday.

She thought about how much she missed her friends, how she was going to kill Cayden, and how she missed Phoebe, one of the Hunters.

During their stay here, the Stolls had put centaur blood in a t-shirt they gave her, so she couldn't go on her quest. McKenzie had visited her often to make fun of them together. After two weeks had passed and the Hunters had to leave, McKenzie had felt a little lonely.

After about an hour or two, the dinner bell rang. McKenzie stood up and brushed the dirt off her jeans, and walked away into the pavilion.

(LINE BREAK)

"No way! Harry Potter!"

"Twilight!"

"HARRY POTTER!"

"TWILIGHT!"

"HARRY POTTER!'

"TWILIGHT, YOU FOOL! TEAM EDWARD! EXCEPT JACOB'S HOT, TOO!"

"HARRY POTTER! I SHALL NOT FAIL YOU, MASTER!" McKenzie screamed towards the heavens.

Everyone in the pavilion turned to look at her strangely for a moment, before shrugging and laughing quietly to themselves. They were used to this, by now. Katie Gardner, however, was still adjusting.

"Um, guys, maybe you should, you know, be a little quieter…"

"SHUT UP, KATIE!" Rosa and McKenzie shouted in unison. "WE'RE BONDING!"

Poor Katie. Breaking up Rosa and McKenzie's "bonding time" used to be Chiron's job -before he quit and said "they'll take it better from a friend."

At the moment, they were taking it as treason.

"HANG HER!"

"BURN HER AT THE STAKE!"

"BEHEAD HER IMMEDIATELY!" 

At last, they agreed they would allow angry Pegasi to rip her to shreds, then her remains would be given to hellhounds as chew toys for a couple years, then scattered across and desert to rot for all eternity while crows pecked at her.

Ah, dinner at Camp Half Blood.

(LINE BREAK)

McKenzie snuggled under the covers of her warm bunk in the Demeter cabin. She stuck her whole body under the covers, and grabbed her flashlight, pen, and journal out from under the mattress.

_Dear Diary, _she began to write.

_Today was pretty interesting. I got up super early to go to camp – about 5:30. After about two hours of lines at the airport, the plane finally left at 8:45. I got to the other airport at about noon, but then I had to wait in line for another two hours or so. Then I took a cab here, which took another hour._

_Bah. ADHD kids do NOT do well in a car for that long. Ugh. It was TORTURE! Hades could regain his riches instantly if he invented a new section of the fields of punishment just about sitting quietly. _

_Anyways, other than the explosion of my poor, innocent little mind, today was a pretty normal day at camp. A boy fell on his knees before me, men all over the nation fought over me, and Aphrodite girls (and Aphrodite herself) screamed in envy and agony. Except for Silena. 'Cause she's alright._

_But anyways, if you want to know what _really_ happened, I suppose I have absolutely no choice but to tell you. Sigh…_

_Cayden was annoying._

_Thomas, this little kid I rescued from empousa the other day, nearly suffocated me._

_Rosa refused to see the light. Still holding onto Twilight, that one. SEE WHAT THE WORLD HAS DONE TO HER MIND?_

_Regina owes me hearing aids._

_Could you be ever so kind as to release me from your chambers where you conduct this torturous, agonizing activity you call writing so I can go to sleep?_

_Thanks,_

_McKenzie_


End file.
